


Makes No Difference Who You Are

by SpiderDreamer1



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keith and Lance are adopted brothers, Pidge is pretty gay tho, Theme Park AU, no inter-party pairings, post-college, salty language occasionally, she/her pronouns for pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 23:52:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9096094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiderDreamer1/pseuds/SpiderDreamer1
Summary: Working at the Galaxy Kingdom theme park in the GoLion area has its downsides, but it's worth it if you have your family with you.





	

“C’mon, _move_ ,” Shiro muttered from behind the wheel of his car. The Galaxy Kingdom sign stared at him, mockingly, just over the horizon. _I’m gonna be late._ Granted, driving and parking would only take about another five minutes….if traffic would just hurry up already.

Finally, after a seeming eternity, the line began to move, and Shiro gunned the gas as soon as it was safe. He was still going to be late, but maybe nobody would notice. _Thank God for employee parking_ , he thought, exiting his car.

Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose as he walked briskly through the employee entrance, moving towards the locker room. He found Director Sendak there, seemingly waiting. _Shit_.

The bearded, severe-looking man looked down his nose at him as he thumbed through a clipboard. “Mr. Shirogane,” he said in a slow, disdainful voice, “I came in here to do my weekly inspection and find that you are ten minutes late to report to your shift.”

“Sorry. Traffic was a nightmare. I’ll try not to let it happen again,” Shiro said in a clipped, efficient manner, hoping he could get this over with quickly.

“See that you do not. I cannot have employees who reflect poorly on me and this _institution_. It is a venerable one. We may not have the cache of Disney or Universal, but we are respected nonetheless.” He flipped through the clipboard. “See Coran for your schedule. The showtimes have been altered slightly from this moment going forward. Understood?”

A flash of annoyance went through Shiro. In the two months he’d been working here, he’d never been late _once_ , and here he was being treated like a child. It was just like being back in theater at Galra U. And Sendak was one to talk; he constantly cheaped out on this “institution”. He swallowed his pride and something else. “Yes, sir.”

Sendak nodded, then left, leaving Shiro to stew. Finally, he sighed and went to his locker, getting out the Emperor Darkstorm costume. He slipped on the black armor, wrapping it around his left arm’s prosthetic as efficiently as he knew how. He flexed, satisfied with its motion. Pidge had offered to upgrade it, though she’d said “well, it might glow a little.” He’d turned her down for the moment after hearing _that_.

Keith came out of the showers in boxers, glancing at Shiro as he got his own costume out. “Hey. Traffic bad?”

“Yeah, and boy did Sendak let me hear it.”

Keith scowled. “He’s such an a-”

“Watch it,” Shiro warned. “The walls have ears.”

Keith clapped his mouth shut, though he still didn’t look happy. Then again, Shiro thought, that wasn’t exactly the most unusual thing in the world when Keith was confronted with injustice.

“Ah, boys!” an accented voice boomed behind him. Shiro turned to see Coran, cheerful in his employee uniform as always. “I presume Director Sendak told you about the schedule shake-ups?”

“He did,” Shiro answered. “Any reason why?”

Coran shrugged as he handed pieces of paper with times on them to both boys. “Can’t say, really. Though I suppose he’s trying to maximize the amount of shows we can get in the summer season given that the crowds are bigger.”

Shiro frowned as he looked at the times. “We’re barely getting any breaks until noon this way,” he pointed out, jabbing a finger at the pages. “We’re going to have to book it to get all of these done.”

“Believe me, I know,” Coran said, “it was worse before. I managed to talk him into at least the hour break for noon this time.”

Shiro clapped a hand on Coran’s shoulder; the older man looked surprised at the display of affection. “Thank you,” Shiro said, sincere. “We really appreciate everything you do for us.”

“I just wish I could do more,” Coran admitted. “Sendak and Haggar have the support of the higher-ups. They don’t know about the mistreatment or the cheaping out. I fear it’ll take some sort of disaster for them to shape up.”

“I won’t let it get that far.” Shiro pulled his hand away as he twirled his cape, putting it on. “Thank you again. You coming to the Friday night bitching session? Hunk’s bringing the food.”

  
Coran suddenly looked evasive. “I’m, er, busy tonight, lad. Besides, you don’t need my old self hanging around. You’re young. Have fun together.” He turned, heading out the door.

Shiro raised an eyebrow as he let, but shrugged. “Ready to go, Starboy?” Shiro looked at Keith.

Keith rolled his eyes as he looked down at his extravagant “hero” costume. “I really hate that name.”

“Well, too bad, it was in the cartoon,” Shiro teased. “I still can’t believe a GoLion reboot was that _successful_ , honestly. It’s so….retro.”

“You mean cheesy?”

“Well,” Shiro admitted, “retro’s a nicer word for cheesy.”

“Lance watched the original when we were kids,” Keith noted. “I think he likes that a little more? Says the reboot is fine but too different.”

“Eh, different is good sometimes.”

_______________________________________________

“Fools! Kill Starboy!” Shiro bellowed, standing on the stage and pointing a large fake sword at Keith. “He is the last to stand in the way of my conquest!” The sun was low in the sky for the last show of the day. The crowd cheerfully booed his statements, to which Shiro gleefully held up his prosthetic, clenching it into a fist. “Goooood! Your hate nourishes me!”

“You may have taken down my team,” Keith shouted, a sword also in his hand, “but you will _never_ crush my spirit! Hyah!” He rushed at the “goons”, hitting his marks, and them, and clashing swords with Shiro.

 _Gotta be careful with these heavier ones_ , Shiro thought, as they went through the motions. He carefully, almost slowly slashed and stabbed at Keith, who dodged with ease and clacked his sword against the blows. Finally Keith put the weapon under Shiro’s arm in a way that made it look like an actual stab.

Shiro let out a hammy gasp, sinking slowly to the ground. “I am beaten! Curse you, Starboy, and all your little friends! I shall rise to defeat you once again!”

“And when you do, we’ll be waiting for you,” Keith spat. _Good_ , _he’s getting even better at this_. He held his sword aloft and cried, “To peace throughout the galaxy and to victory!” The other “team members” got up from their prone positions and repeated the words.

The show ended, everyone taking their bows, and Shiro hopped off the stage to fill out autographs. Darkstorm had a surprising amount of fans despite being generally awful; he supposed it was sort of a Darth Vader situation where the style and “cool” factor won out.

Eventually, a little girl bounced up to him, parents close behind. “And what’s your name, small fleshling?” Shiro boomed. “Do you wish to pay tribute to Lord Darkstorm?”

She giggled. “I’m Carol! I’m just like you!” Shiro’s breath hitched as he watched her hold up her right arm. It was a far less advanced prosthetic than his own and much smaller. “Could you sign it please?”

He took a moment to regain his composure, a strained wicked grin on his face. “O-of course! Lord Darkstorm is always glad to have another recruit in the fight against good!” He took her pen, signing the arm, and looked at the parents. Something like understanding passed through them all.

“Come along now, Carol,” her mother said gently. Carol quickly gave him a hug, waved to him as she walked off, and Shiro waved back. Finally, the crowd dispersed, and he was left to go back to the changing room.

As he arrived, he stumbled a bit, tears coming to his eyes.

“You okay?” Keith asked as he came in behind Shiro, looking worried.

“Yeah. Yeah I just…I just need a moment.” This was why it was important. For all the bitching he did, and for all that Sendak and Haggar were cheap money-grubbing assholes, he knew that kids needed dreams. Which, yeah, was a little cheesy, and he wouldn’t be here forever, of course. But for the time he was, well, he could at least try to brighten their lives.

And it would be _a lot easier to do that_ if they had better conditions and weren’t cheaping out so much.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at Keith. “See you and Lance at my place.”

“See you there.”

______________________________________

Shiro pulled into the apartment parking lot, noticing that everyone else’s cars were there already. _Geez, guys, impatient much?_   Sure enough, when he came up to the door, Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk were all waiting expectantly for him.

“Just couldn’t wait, could you?” he asked, taking his keys out.

“Nope,” Pidge said, “today was _hell_.” She was frowning behind her glasses.

“This _week_ has been hell,” Hunk added.

Lance scoffed. “It hasn’t been THAT bad. The weather’s been nice enough that I’m not sweating my ass off.”

Shiro unlocked the door as the griping behind him continued, only to be knocked off-balance by an enormous St. Bernard jumping onto him. “Hey, Saint,” he greeted, voice warm as the dog licked him.

“I still can’t believe you named him that,” Pidge said as everyone moved into the apartment after Saint released Shiro.

“It’s for Saint Nick, y’know?” Shiro moved to the fridge, taking out a six pack. “I’ve explained that like a million times.”

“Yeah, and it’s STILL weird,” Lance observed, flopping down on the couch. Shiro chucked a can at him, which Lance caught reflexively and snapped open. Pidge sidled down next to him while Keith took the beanbag.

Hunk, meanwhile, set down his platter of...well, Shiro wasn’t exactly sure. Now he was examining Shiro’s cabinets. “Do you _still_ eat nothing but instant ramen?” Hunk said with a frown.

Shiro gave a sheepish grin as he held up another can. “Maybe?”

Hunk rolled his eyes as he took the can and moved to the living room, taking a place on the floor. “Okay, that settles it, I’m recalibrating your diet.”

“I guess I don’t have a choice,” Shiro joked. Hunk gave him a glare, folding his arms. “Right. Sorry.”

Eventually, everyone had their alcohol and the Friday Night Bitching Session commenced. Over the next couple of hours, more cans piled up as everyone aired their grievances.

“I mean,” Pidge was ranting, “if you _want_ me to upgrade your membership, you need to have the right number! It’s not my fault if you don’t have that, right?” She took a swig, wiping her mouth. “I can do a lot of things with computers, but I’m not THAT good. Especially since our systems need, like, a CRAZY upgrade to be up to date.”

“Speaking of needing to update, almost half of the rides aren’t up to code,” Hunk groused. “Haggar keeps saying she’ll bribe any inspectors who look too closely, but it’s like, we wouldn’t need to worry about THAT money if we just SPENT the money to get the rides up to code!” He growled, taking a long drag of the beer. “At this point I might just pay to fix them myself.”

“I….don’t really have much to complain about?” Lance offered. He wilted a bit under the force of everyone else’s raised eyebrows. “I mean yeah it’s nasty and sweaty, and the kids are loud, but it’s like nice y’know? I really wanna be on stage with you guys though.”

Shiro snorted. “Well, first we need to stop using the heavier versions of the weapons in every show. I keep telling Sendak I’m going to hurt somebody, but does he listen? Nooooooo.”

“ _Somebody’s_ half in the bag,” Keith said, distinctly amused as he scratched Saint’s neck.

Shiro rolled his eyes (like Keith was one to talk) as someone knocked on the door. He looked around to see who was closest to the door. “Pidge, go get it.”

“What? Aw c’mooooooon, I just got comfortable again.”

“Pleeeeeeease?” He put a good whine into his voice, amplified by the pleasant buzz.

“Oh, _fine,"_ she huffed. Shiro heard her gasp as she opened it: “ _Allura!_ ”

Shiro turned, as did everyone else as Pidge came back grinning with one tall, elegantly dressed woman in tow. Allura grinned at everyone through shaded lenses and a straw hat. “Darlings! I’ve missed you so much!”

“Welcome back,” Shiro drawled, getting up from his chair as everyone rushed over to her for hugs, Hunk lifting Allura as she laughed in delight.

“When did you get back?” Lance asked.

“Only a little while ago. Coran picked me up,” Allura said as she wriggled out of Hunk’s grip.

 _That must have been why he didn’t come tonight._ Shiro took notice of the bags under her eyes.

“Long flight, huh?” he guessed.

“Oh, not at all, I….” But something seemed to switch off in Allura and she took about three steps before flopping down onto the ground. More specifically, Saint, who seemed delighted to have a new floor pal. “Okay, I lied,” Allura admitted. “I’m _exhausted_.”

“Guess you’re staying here, then,” Shiro said, going to get a blanket from the closet. “And before you say anything, it’s not imposing, there’s plenty of room, and Saint would be sad.” He smirked as he came back, seeing Allura about to object before she closed her mouth.

“Very well, then,” she finally conceded before sinking further into Saint’s fur.

Shiro looked at the rest of the group. “You’re all staying too, of course. Everyone’s had a bit too much to drink.”

A chorus of “what, oh come on, no we haven’t” rose up before Shiro raised his hand. “No buts. If I’ve had enough, _you’ve_ had enough. I’ll bring out the sleeping bags.”

In roughly half an hour, everyone was conked out in various states. Shiro had draped the blanket over Allura and Saint, Hunk was on the futon, and Keith, Lance, and Pidge were snug as bugs. Shiro yawned, heading back to his room. It was good to have the whole family back together.

  
Now if only the workplace could be improved….

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new AU folks! This refused to leave me alone, and I had a lot of fun plotting out everyone's stuff and new backstories (among other things, Keith and Lance are adopted brothers; I will be posting a separate chapter of backstories and such for more details on those at some point). Each chapter will be from a different perspective, which should be fun.
> 
> Specific notes on this chapter: Sendak's physical appearance and general demeanor is based on Alan Rickman (RIP), because the idea of him as a disdainful theme park area director was irresistible. Saint is semi-borrowed from BossToaster's Christmas collection Sweet Silver Bells, although in that he's a robot. He's from this chapter, specifically: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8839597/chapters/20529841(Seriously though, go check her stuff out, she's AMAZING) And GoLion is, of course, the original anime that Voltron was partially cobbled together from in its 80s form. I liked the idea of being a little meta about reboots and differences being good sometimes.


End file.
